November 06, 2017

Accenture Helps Machinery Manufacturing Company Biesse Group Harness Industry X.0 For Connected Customer Services

Accenture creates digitization strategy, operating model, roadmap and Innovation Engine for service creation, delivering an IIoT platform and analytics services

MILAN; Nov. 6, 2017 – Accenture (NYSE: ACN) is supporting Biesse Group, a leading technology specialist in material processing, as it seeks to innovate and transform its business by expanding it beyond products and into digital services. This approach follows Accenture’s ‘Industry X.0’ model for industry digitization.

Accenture worked with Biesse Group to analyze the impact of a shift to digital, helped the client to shape its digitization strategy, and then supported the implementation. Accenture helped to create a new operating model as well as new service offerings for Biesse, and built an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platform which serves as the foundation of the manufacturer’s new digital service platform ‘SOPHIA.’

Accenture also established an Innovation Engine within the client – a capability which uses Accenture and other ecosystem partners’ expertise and tools to help Biesse ideate, prototype and launch new services faster.

Experts from Accenture work side by side with Biesse staff to help analyze machine and customer data to create valuable insights, and improve the Biesse customer experience. Accenture continues to deliver a large part of this work within a risk- and reward-sharing model.

Industry X.0 is how Accenture defines the digital reinvention of industry, when businesses use advanced digital technologies to transform their core operations, their worker and customer experiences and ultimately their business models. New levels of efficiency are achieved in the core of R&D, engineering, production, manufacturing and business support through integrated systems, processes, sensors and new intelligence. For industrial manufacturers like Biesse, Industry X.0 usually starts with digitizing and enhancing existing products to enable new service offerings.

Biesse’s SOPHIA is set to deploy new digital services to its customers, including preventive maintenance alerts, machine management, manufacturing events analysis and remote software distribution. Sensors and devices on the machines generate in-depth data insights for display on easy-to-view dashboards using Microsoft Power BI data visualization. The platform runs on an Industry X.0 solution from Accenture, which uses the Accenture Connected Platforms as a Service (CPaaS) on Azure IoT offering. This enables SOPHIA to perform predictive analytics and real-time remote diagnostics.

As part of the SOPHIA roll-out, Biesse’s customers will be able to customize the services they receive, from machine alerts to advanced services like in-depth machine analytics. These improve the customer’s equipment effectiveness, productivity, and satisfaction. Biesse plans to deploy new services for its machinery aftermarket business across 20,000 machines, generating a new range of revenue streams.

The platform can help reduce warranty and maintenance costs, obtain real-time customer data and alerts. Biesse can use performance and usage insights from the field to improve product development, adding features to existing machines. The manufacturer can also provide customers with alerts that suggest ways to maximize production from their machines, thanks to the analysis of data feeds.

Industrial equipment companies that leverage the right combination of new technology, including big data, through Industry X.0 could increase their market capitalization by an average of more than US$2.4 billion, according to Accenture’s research. Big data is one of the five key technologies that can also help these companies realize additional cost savings of $43,358 per employee.

“Accenture is helping Biesse Group to develop a service-oriented approach that helps customers generate greater value from our machines. We will be able to offer our customers a menu of features from remote diagnostics, warnings, and alerts to condition-based/predictive maintenance services and usage analysis, plus more sophisticated production process optimization capabilities. These services will also augment our aftermarket business with new revenue streams and make us stand out from our competitors”, said Stefano Porcellini, managing director, Biesse Group.

“Biesse is following the Industry X.0 model to stay ahead of the pack. Companies that do so are able to fundamentally redesign customer experiences through personalization and advances in new and emerging technologies,” said Giuseppe La Commare, managing director, Industrial and Travel, Accenture. “Biesse is demonstrating how business models and revenue streams can be unlocked by smart, connected products, services, and plants that are enabled by new ecosystems.”

The solution recently won the Best Business Transformation Award at the IoT Solutions World Congress, in Barcelona.

About Accenture
Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions – underpinned by the world’s largest delivery network – Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With approximately 425,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com.

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Contacts:

Anthony Hatter
Accenture
+44 7810 756 138
anthony.hatter@accenture.com

Daniela Bracco
Accenture
+39 335 1039417
daniela.bracco@accenture.com